Chapter 284 Accompanying
After the caravan left, Roland heaved a sigh of relief.
Finally... the coffers are filled again.
A total of eight steam engines were delivered to the three chambers of commerce, three of which were produced in the No. 2 factory assisted by the Crescent Bay Chamber of Commerce-it has to be said that these craftsmen from the fjords are far superior to those in the small town in terms of talent and learning ability After the miners and blacksmiths mastered the operation of machine tools, the qualified rate of finished products rose sharply. Maybe in two months, the production capacity of No. 2 Factory will catch up with No. 1 Factory. Fortunately, according to the signed contract, the sales income of these machines belonged to Roland.
In addition, he also received a purchase order for a new hydrogen balloon from the Crescent Bay caravan. Marlan was very interested in this kind of thing that can greatly expand the field of vision. In addition to the single-person scout balloon, he also specially customized one A giant balloon that can carry three to four people and is intended for exploring new islands in the fjords.
Including the delivery of the first paddle steamer, the three together brought an income of nearly 7,000 gold dragons to Border Town. After deducting the purchase of metal ingots, washing stones, grains and other commodities, the remaining 6,000 gold dragons were enough to support the town. Started his population expansion plan.
Roland called Barov and Iron Ax into the office.
"Now that I have spare money, it's time to go to other places to recruit more people." He looked at the two capable generals, "This time the operation will be carried out by the city hall and the First Army. You decide the specific personnel yourself. I will only explain to you. Approximate task content."
"Please tell me." The manager nodded.
"Recruitment is divided into two directions, the north and the south." Roland pulled out a map from the table and spread it out in front of the two of them, "Especially the line from Eagle City to Port of Clear Water...I suspect that Timothy has sent these people As a part of Garcia's forces, they are useless people who can be consumed at will, so you have to win them over first."
"The team sent by the city hall is responsible for recruiting nobles, craftsmen and other literate people, while the main task of the First Army is to recruit civilians. Unlike the previous propaganda, this time the method should be more proactive. Do you understand what I mean?"
Iron Ax hesitated for a moment, "You mean...forced pull?"
"Ahem, there's no need to do that step," Roland coughed twice, and the sandman's style was indeed simple and rude, "For example, distributing food, actively persuading, paying living expenses in advance, etc." He glanced at Barov, " You should be aware of this."
"Of course, Your Highness, I have assisted ministers and patrols to suppress and appease refugee riots many times when I was in the capital," the latter stroked his beard and said, "Their demands are very simple, sometimes they just fill their stomachs. So there is no need to use money to win them over, and don’t even mention the salary—if the conditions are too good, they will become suspicious. He will travel thousands of miles with us for a piece of steamed bread, and only then will he need to be lured with money and promises."
Roland clapped his palms with satisfaction, "It's a pity that Border Town has so many things to do, you can't go there in person, otherwise this task will be successfully completed."
"Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will send my most proud disciple there." Barov said with a smile, "When the city is built next year, there will be residential houses on both sides of the Chishui River."
"There will be such a day."
After the two left, Roland leaned back in his chair and rested for a while, before deciding to visit Anna in the backyard on the north slope.
As soon as you enter the door, the first thing that catches your eyes is the metal squares all over the floor.
Roland picked one up and put it in his palm—they were basically the same size, about five centimeters long and wide, with uneven surfaces, as if they had been squeezed by something, and a number was engraved on one side. For example, the piece in his hand is engraved with the words "No. 256".
"How about it, do you have any better discoveries?"
"No. 1057 and No. 2284, one is extremely hard, and the other is excellent in terms of hardness and toughness." Anna greeted her with a bright smile on her face.
"It's more than 2,000 numbers?" Roland asked in surprise. He took the notebook from Lucia, which was densely filled with data. I found the line 2284, and found that after the serial number, it said "0.8% carbon content, 15.2% unknown element No. 4".
"Well, this is much more interesting than cutting the barrel of a gun," Anna blinked. "Adding other metals to the iron block can actually change its properties drastically. I really want to know how these metal balls combined."
The exploration that Anna and Lucia are currently doing is a profound work.
Roland first asked the little girl to decompose the ore into various raw materials, and then Anna mixed them with pure iron in different mass ratios to smelt them, made test blocks and tested their properties—through the extrusion and stretching of the black fire, Anna It can tell the amount of magic power consumed by each operation, so as to judge its strength and toughness.
The first thing to add is obviously carbon.
Although Roland knows that steel is essentially an iron-carbon alloy: pig iron with too much carbon, pure iron without carbon, and steel can only be called steel if the carbon content is within a certain range, and the slightest fluctuation can greatly change the properties of the metal, so the most The first thing to measure is the size of this range.
It can be seen from the records that before 1500, it was pure iron and carbon smelting, but after 1500, new elements were added to the steel. Roland knew that for each additional number in the permutation and combination, the possible results would multiply. This was an extremely long process, so he only asked Anna to explore this part of the content when the manufacturing task was not heavy.
He encouraged the two witches and sat aside, quietly admiring Anna's busy back.
Although the sunshine after autumn was still bright, it no longer had the viciousness of Ji Xia. He felt warm all over his body, and a sense of stability that he had not seen for a long time came to his heart.
After an unknown amount of time, the courtyard gradually became quiet. He suddenly felt a soft hand on his forehead, opened his half-closed eyes, Lucia was gone, and Anna was sitting in front of him, "You have something to tell me."
"..."
"Your eyes tell me," she said, tilting her head, the ends of her hair hanging down naturally, like strands of translucent gold.
Roland hesitated for a while, and finally shook his head helplessly, "I'm just a little confused." He briefly explained the population expansion plan to the other party, "Compared to the initial free choice, now I have used some Half lure, half coercion. Although this is done to prevent them from being forced by Timothy and finally dying from the erosion of pills, but when I think about it seriously, what I did is not too far from him... The only The difference is only in purpose.”
"Doesn't the purpose explain everything?" She asked softly.
"But……"
"I know what you want to say," Anna covered the prince's mouth, "you are worried that they won't appreciate it, and at the same time, you can't guarantee that your purpose will always be correct in the future—you will be punished by using wrong means to achieve the right purpose." People misunderstood, or the correct means caused irreversible mistakes... You don’t know whether the correct means is important or the correct result is important. Am I right?”
"Don't worry," before he could answer, Anna had already leaned forward, holding Roland's cheeks with both hands, and whispered in his ear, "I'm here... I'll take good care of you."